Are you totally bored with typical travel? Bored with canned, packaged, same-old holidays?
Longing for something a little different?
Are you tired of walking half a mile down corridors, waiting for elevators, then walking another half mile of paved walks to get to an over-stuffed pool or a crowded beach with people lined-up like dominoes?
Are you sick of having to race down to the pool to put a towel on a chair to save it? Or worse yet, paying for a chair?
Are you tired of lining-up to book a restaurant table days before you even know what kind of food you might feel like that day?
Do you get tired of meeting only fellow tourists, and never meeting the every day real people of the country?
Does waking up on a white sand beach like this, a few steps from the sparkling clear aquamarine ocean, appeal to you?
Does a trip that could actually cost way less than that package holiday appeal to you even more?
Maybe we’re eccentrics, but we absolutely don’t want to go where everybody else goes.
Oh yes, there are a few traditional tourist places we want to see, like the South of France, but we have no desire, for example, to go to Paris. For all the glam and glitter written about Paris, we heard friends and family who have been there whisper under their breaths (as if they were embarrassed to admit it), that Paris was noisy and dirty and that the people were really quite rude. Actually, to us, that’s the same for most big cities – too busy, too difficult to get around, too noisy, too expensive and too touristy.
To wander around a small town and find homemade local foods at a quarter of the price of big cities, or have a villager start a shy chat, or when you ask for advice and found you are taken directly to the place you’re looking for – these are just a few of the advantages of going to smaller centres.
Safety? Many people think its safer to go to well-known tourist destinations, but think about your own towns and cities at home. Are big cities safer than small towns?
Big cities on the tourist radar map often have scammers and thieves just ready and waiting to part you with your money.
But you will wear the biggest smile when a local on a small island offers you a fresh mango that he just plucked from high on the tree.
T and I had great adventures in Nicaragua. It was inexpensive, fun, intriguing, authentic and incredibly beautiful.
From the most exquisite turquoise ocean on our own private white sand beaches…
To town squares that entertained us for hours, and to a town that had us contemplating buying a small property there….
To experiencing life on an uninhabited island…
To zip-lining across the misty tree tops of the jungle…
We couldn’t have had a better time!
(Ok, T says there was that time at the dock at midnight… and I have to agree it was a little scary…)
So stay tuned for the next posts as we explore Nicaragua… (AKA Nica)
